I had some kids knock on my door yesterday and said they were raising money for their school. I read the envelope that had all the info on it (this was also the envelope they kept their money collected in). I looked in the envelope and their was three $1 bills in it. I asked them how long they were walking around and they said over 2 hours. I smiled and asked them how much I should donate. They smiled back and said, "As much as you want Sir." I asked them if $20 sounds good, and they got super excited and said, "Yeah!" I gave them the $20 and they got on their bikes and rode to the next house. Now if these kids were raising money for a GIANT charity, I would not have given them a single penny! Why not you ask? Because the money would not go where it actually needs to go but in to some Presidents' or Board Members' pockets instead!
Some of these mega charities members' salaries are sickening. It just doesn't make sense to me that people can become multimillionaires by starting and/or running a charity. It kind of ruins the whole concept of charity when these CEO's are pulling a giant salary. Now, I totally understand that running a charity is a full time job and you should be paid. That concept I get, however what I don't get is how people can morally take a ballooned salary when they're main focus is helping people. Let me give you some examples.
NAACP CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous earns $275,000 per year
World Vision CEO Richard Stearns earns $380,000 per year
Food For The Poor CEO Robin Mahfood earns $390, 000 per year
Susan G. Komen CEO Nancy Brinker earns $417,000 per year
World Wildlife Fund CEO Carter Roberts earns $427,000 per year
Saint Judes CEO David McKee earns $513,000 per year
American Cancer Society CEO John Seffrin earns $915,000 per year
American Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern earns $1,000,000 per year
The list goes on and on. Again, I get that it's a job and that these charities need some super smart people to guide them but some of these salaries are absolutely ridiculous! I also understand that some of these charities bring in mega dollars, some over $1Trillion a year, but why waste all this money? You mean to tell me that you couldn't get people that are just as smart, and just as effective in running a charity that would do it for WAY less money? You know, a CEO that actually cares about the CAUSE and not the PAYCHECK. It blows my mind that Nancy Brinker has gotten absolutely filthy rich at the expense of her Sister dying from breast cancer. I am not saying that the Susan G. Komen foundation doesn't do great things or that it's a bad charity but for her to take $417,000 every year and put it right in her pocket is nothing but ABSURD to me. I'm not going to post any pictures, but go ahead and Google some of these CEO's houses. It will make you nauseous.
For every MEGA CHARITY, there are a handful of ones that do great things that actually have CEOs that do it for reasons other than MONEY. Next time you are thinking of donating money to a charity do some research. You can go to www.charitynavigator.org and actually see what they are doing with your money. They have a scoring system and a star rating for every charity. You might actually find out that the smaller local cancer, feed the poor, or environmental charity will actually put your money towards their cause and not their mortgage payments...
Cheers!
K.A. Ball
No comments:
Post a Comment